11 November 2016

Obama has overruled the pro-nusra faction in his government ...

"“The president doesn’t want this group to be what inherits the country if Assad ever does fall,” a senior U.S. official said. “This cannot be the viable Syrian opposition. It’s al-Qaeda.”

Officials said the administration’s hope is that more-moderate rebel factions will be able to gain ground as both the Islamic State and al-Nusra come under increased military pressure.

A growing number of White House and State Department officials, however, have privately voiced doubts about the wisdom of applying U.S. military power, even covertly, to pressure Assad to step aside, particularly since Russia’s military intervention in Syria last year.

U.S. intelligence officials say they aren’t sure what Trump’s approach to U.S.-backed rebel units will be once he gets briefed on the extent of the covert CIA program. Trump has voiced strong skepticism about arming Syrian rebels in the past, suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t have enough knowledge about rebel intentions to pick reliable allies." Washpost

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What is this? Has Obama finally come to his senses in the last months of his presidency? If I read this article correctly Obama overruled the neocon Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, the toadies he brought with him to the JCS and the always power hungry CIA. Rather than continue to accept the Israeli influenced "Assad must Go" policy, Obama apparently has directed the DoD to begin massive attacks against this AQ group in Syria.

Will this lead to cooperation with Russia in these operations? I don't know. I hope it will. Apparently Russian air defenses in Syria have been allowing US drone operations in western Syria for some time.

This change of policy is a radical reversal which indicates that overthrow of the Syrian government is no longer a priority of the Obama Administration. Logically, but merely so, Carter should resign since his policy recommendation has been rejected.

The fight for Mosul looks to me to be something that will last a long, long time. What will Obama do about that in his remaining time?

What will President Trump's policy be in the ME? Only time will tell. pl

I believe Obama deliberately left the question whether to fight against or alongside Al Qaeda in Syria open until after the election, to let the American have their say on that matter.

So, the American people have spoken, and they made it clear with their ballots that they are no friend of Al Qaeda. And now Obama simply did what the American people have chosen. I believe leaving that question open until after the election was a deliberate boon given by Obama to Trump. HRC and her sponsors from Wall Street and the lobby had enough hubris to think they could align themselves with Al Qaeda in Syria and get away with it. Big mistake, and good tactical play from Obama. And I think Trump knows it, that's why he said Obama is "a very good man."

My guess is that Obama has acted in this way because he feels he finally has the Borg off his back re Syria. From now til inauguration, Democrat-aligned Borgists will be totally occupied cleaning out their desks, burying their mistakes, and scrambling for paying positions in think tanks and other refuges.

Trump's looming problem will be to select people for State that aren't equally dangerous because they are carrying massive Cold War or Zionist baggage. John Bolton being a prime example.

Pre-election, Pence has made some strong interventionist statements re Syria. It remains to be seen whether these were statements of position or merely throwing red meat to certain voting constituencies.

However, Pence is likely to have other priorities, as he has just been identified to take over from Christie in leading the transition team, as Christie is expected to be fully occupied defending himself on Bridgegate

Our EUSSR poodles are in panic mode. So funny !
But not Orban, (Hungarian prime minister )
“This is the second day of a historic event, in which Western civilization appears to successfully break free from the confines of an ideology,”
“We are living in the days where what we call liberal non-democracy – in which we lived for the past 20 years – ends, and we can return to real democracy,”
nor Heinz-Christian Strache, leader FPO of Austria
« The political left as well as the cold and dirty Establishment are punished by the voters and ruled out by various positions of decision-making ».
nor Farage (UKIP, GB )
" The Nation is back. 2016 is the year when people voted for the change and to regain control over their life. The victory of Trump is as huge Brexit. "
Is the dam breaking ?
I hope so.

Perhaps by striking Isis in western Syria and having them totally destroyed there Obama is playing a strategic game that will show the dead enders in Mosul that the game is up. If western Syria is cleansed then the moral of the typical Isis recruit will falter and many could very well slip away. They would of course still be radicalized, but anything that makes taking Mosul easier would be seen as well worth it. I'm sure as far as his legacy is concerned, if Obama can manage to liberate most of western Iraq before January 20th he would try it.

It seems to me Obama just unofficially aligned the US with Russia in Syria. This is what Trump wants. To him I believe it's as simple as that. No sense in delaying the inevitable.

I can understand why Euros might mistake this election as a mandate for a change in foreign policy, but it wasn't. The rhetoric on the campaign trail was almost gibberish. The Rust Belt spoke. Their plight is not well covered in the media but every town has a growing population of homeless. Many of these people have jobs and kids. A school reasonably suspended all homework assignments because they became aware nearly 20% of their students are homeless. No desk. No place to do it.

As Noah pointed out last night on TDS this is a semi rural population. Nobody would notice a protest in such places even if they managed to gather enough in the same place and time to stage one. They have been ignored because they are easy to ignore. Our media exists within big-city bubbles. They tout "unemployment rates" which miss the low wages and they cite Dow Jones averages...and manage to ignore the homeless in their own overpasses and green belts.

The majority are not homeless, but they know they are but a few bad breaks away and can see little they can do to improve their lot. The good paying jobs of the mid 20th for the working stiff are few and far between now. And yet the population grows....

Everybody knows Trump is a liar and a thief, but at least he doesn't seem to think this can be fixed by college tuition reform and "education". Everybody knew Obama was black too, he didn't fix this mess for whatever reason and this same demographic turned on him two years later. Expect the same for Trump if he too fails to deliver hope.

You would seem to have an inordinate regard for your bosses. Have you worked in the private sector - or for that matter pretty much anywhere - much? He did it his way - seriously? He had the great good fortune to be born to a rich father. What he did with that wealth, ie how much he actually grew it we'll never know as he's sure not going to show his returns. His boss attitude would seem to flow mainly from having inherited excessive wealth and never having to suffer much in the way of consequences. He's a boss when those he's bossing have few recourses.

I'm sure you'll be excited when he appoints the heads of the investment banks to the administration - more bosses! Great. Have you heard what he's said about Israel? Of course, since per his supporters you can't take anything he says seriously we'll see.

Perhaps BO sees Trump for what he is, a grifter. Trump campaigns against Washington insiders and wants to #clear the swamp, yet predictions for his cabinet all are insiders: Gingrich, Diamond, Giuliani, Bolton, Mnuchin. He vowed to repeal The ACA and now says he may keep parts of it. Giuliani is walking back prosecuting HRC. Maybe BO wants to
insure that he leaves as little chance as possible that The Donald could start WWIII, because anything he says has a 50-50 chance of being bull$hit. Thus, make nice with Russia, so any future kerfuffle is on The Donald.

It seems to me this decision by Obama confirms a feeling I voiced several months ago here . . . that his major after-office reward-payers would not be basing their payouts on his positions on Israel-specific or Middle-East specific issues. I think he did this knowing his coming payoffs will not be endangered.

His reward will be for several things: engineering functional immunity and impunity for the Cheney/bush Administration war crimes perpetrators and Geneva Convention violators, engineering functional immunity and impunity for the FIRE sector perpetrators behind the crash of 2008 and the fraud engineering leading up to it, and some small reward for getting Obamacare passed, even though it is not working out as well for its expected forced captive revenue-stream beneficiaries as they would
have hoped.

If I am right about that, then Obama will get at least a Clinton-sized payout over the next 10 years. If I am wrong about that, then he will receive ten million dollars or less over the next ten years. I doubt he will ever get invited to all the fun parties and things that the Clintons will keep getting invited to.

I've thought the Deep State & the Borg were;
a) not formally defined nor long & widely held concepts,
b) essentially synonymous with one another, or at least greatly overlapping.
Could you identify the core distinction between the two?

I've believed that Obama left national security & foreign policy to the borg-pros (as did Clinton in his admins) as dems do who have limited background (or interest, or expertise) in those fields. (The trade was that they were able to concentrate upon domestic policy.) His neocon-light harpies that disturbed many so much were a form of affirmative action... and he kept 'em in check by limiting their authority to wield power. It surprises me that those who see conspiracies & complex stratagems around every issue find it hard to conceive that Obama might allow distinct interests to co-exist in his admin... but of course, a community organizer couldn't be so sophisticated.

I'll be tracking how Trump does with our NatSec by (among others) a simplistic comparative gauge - how many military personnel are lost & how much treasure is squandered in dubious pursuits, compared to previous job holders.

People are worrying about Trump appointing neocon Bush era insiders; yet if Trump didn't believe in pivoting on key policies, then why is the Syrian realignment happening? Ousting Assad has been Borg priority as we all know.

You are right Pat, it is not a quotation from Trump. But nowhere did I suggest (well - directly suggest) it was. I picked the meme from a fake NYT page 1 that is widely circulating on Twitter. Headline: "Trump forces black family form home". See for example here:https://twitter.com/runningforpizza/status/796403752064483328

I'm not sure if its an end to the American/European relationship, especially for the British who have already partially escaped the old neo-con reality with Brexit. A big point of the Remainers is that it will take us years to negotiate any trade deals outside the EU, but a senior Trump aide has already said that a Trump administration would be prepared to sign a trade deal with Britain very soon.

For the next step toward reality we have a brainless neo-con Defence Minister Michael Farron whose demise no one will even notice, and a Foreign Minister Boris Johnson who is so shit-scared of looming scandals he will follow any policy. There is only one neo-con of any significance within Theresa May's cabinet, and her backbenchs are stuffed with "realist" senior Tory MPs - mainly ex-military and ex-diplomats - who want no more nonsense in the ME or with Russia.

Trump's victory has strengthened the hands of the "good Guys" in this country - even in the Labour Party - and weakened the "bad guys."